GOP committee asks if Democrats want to cancel the queen. Uh, we did that already. In 1776

[Brexiter]

Sometimes making fun of Republicans is like shooting fish in a barrel. Actually, no. They’re not fish so much as some kind of animal that can’t swim … or crawl out of a barrel. It’s like watching a drunk, elderly orangutan drown in a barrel. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I just add the color commentary.

So the sovereign of the country we canceled 244 years ago via a violent revolution and abrupt late-night breakup text (“Yo, T-Jeff here. We done”) recently announced that British folks will need an ID to vote from now on. This prompted Republicans to do what they’re best at: grossly misrepresent what’s happening in the world outside their fever-ravaged brains.

Get a gander at this gormlessness:

The woke cancel culture mob continues to call voter ID racist. Now that the Queen of England will require an ID to vote, will Dems cancel her too? pic.twitter.com/XG9s8sp4uO

— Republican State Leadership Committee (@RSLC) May 12, 2021

For the nontweeters:

The woke cancel culture mob continues to call voter ID racist. Now that the Queen of England will require an ID to vote, will Dems cancel her too?

1. Again, we did cancel the queen. Or, rather, one of her predecessors. It was in all the papers. Hard to believe they missed it.
2. I’m no expert on British civil rights struggles, but I don’t think their country has the same awful history with repressive Jim Crow-type laws that we do. In this country, if you’re going to make it harder for people of color to vote, you better have a damn good reason. Of course, Republicans don’t have a damn good reason—or any reason at all, really—because their new voting restrictions are solutions in search of a problem that simply doesn’t exist. In-person voter fraud is vanishingly rare. This makes sense when you think about it. Your vote in any given election is extremely unlikely to swing a result, even in a down-ballot race, and yet if you try to vote twice or place a vote for a dead person, you’ll likely face felony charges if you’re caught. So why would you ever attempt something that’s simultaneously feckless and reckless?
3. As you may have guessed, everything they’re saying is bullshit.

Aaron Blake, writing for The Washington Post’s The Fix, lays it out in stark terms:

Queen Elizabeth II on Tuesday delivered the “Queen’s Speech,” in which she lays out the agenda for Parliament. And this year’s speech featured a notable inclusion: a push to require voter ID in British elections.

A number of prominent allies of former president Donald Trump quickly hailed the move. They did so not just because Britain is moving toward something Democrats have derided as being voter suppression, but because it was the queen, of all people, behind it. Their argument: How could it be racist when it’s the queen?

Really? How can it be racist when it’s the queen? The head of a hereditary monarchy who claimed her position by dint of an accident of birth (and abdication) couldn’t possibly be racist? Sure.

More importantly, though, this isn’t the queen’s policy. It was Boris Johnson’s.

The problem? The queen’s speech isn’t a statement of the monarchy’s or even the queen’s personal political views. Indeed, the monarchy generally stays out of such things. It’s a speech prepared by the party in charge of Britain’s government, which right now is the Conservative Party led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The queen reads the speech, but this is not her policy agenda.

Yup. Queen Elizabeth II is a figurehead who reads whatever’s put in front of her. In this respect, she’s essentially the English Ron Burgundy.

YouTube Video


Also, it’s not like liberals and voting rights advocates across the pond are all Kool & the Gang with this decision. As Dr. Jess Garland, director of policy and research for the U.K.’s Electoral Reform Society, writes in The Guardian ...

Proposals to introduce mandatory voter ID, as unveiled in today’s Queen’s speech, are a dangerous attack on our democratic rights that could lead to millions of legitimate voters being locked out of the polling station on election day. It is estimated that implementing the proposals could cost up to £20m per election, a hefty price tag for an unnecessary policy, and an expensive distraction from the real issues that affect our democracy and our country more widely.

But, hey, being a Republican means putting on a dishonest clown show. And instead of terrorizing small children at birthday parties, they’re coming for all of us.

The question: Are we ready?


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